A September 2000 study by Dr. Jay P. Greene, a research associate at the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance, revealed that Michigan businesses and institutions of higher learning spend more than $600 million per year to make up for the lack of basic reading, writing, and arithmetic skills among high school graduates and employees. Assuming that other states had comparable experiences, the national cost due to the lack of basic skills is conservatively estimated to be $16.6 billion each year. The study notes that in addition to these monetary costs, the human costs of so many students failing to learn basic skills in K-12 schools are incalculably higher.[47]

[47] Jay P. Greene, The Cost of Remedial Education: How Much Michigan Pays When Students Fail to Learn Basic Skills, Mackinac Center for Public Policy, September 2000. Available on the Internet at http://www.mackinac.org/article.asp?ID=3025.